42.3449° N, 71.0753° W
BOSTON
Most Famous People Born in Boston, United States
- Notable people
- 3,663
- Peak decade
- 1950s
- Median birth year
- 1926
- Most distinctive
- Novelist 3.5×
America's oldest civic intelligentsia. Boston's notables are unusually concentrated in the 1700s and 1800s by American standards, and the distinctive shelves still read like a Yankee almanac — novelists, lawyers, military officers, mathematicians, and diplomats, the trades of a city where Harvard, the State House, and the Old North Church share a few square miles. The modern half tilts more conventionally toward Red Sox baseball, actors, and a deep college-bred music scene.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Boston during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 348 notable births.
What Boston Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Actor is Boston's biggest profession — 9% of all notables (314).
Boston over-indexes on novelist — 3.5× the global rate.
Boston under-produces football — only 0.2× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Boston's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Politics & Law
- Sports
- Writing
- Film & TV
- Science
- Music
- Other
- Filtered to 1900s Clear ×
Arlene Francis
1907 - 2001
Jerry Colonna (entertainer)
1904 - 1986
Lois Mailou Jones
1905 - 1998
Dorothy West
1907 - 1998
Korczak Ziolkowski
1908 - 1982
Harry Kemelman
1908 - 1996
Paul D. Harkins
1904 - 1984
Joseph E. Levine
1905 - 1987
Carl Mydans
1907 - 2004
John Wright (cardinal)
1909 - 1979
Max Tishler
1906 - 1989
Frank Ross (producer)
1904 - 1990
Thomas Church (landscape architect)
1902 - 1978
Oscar Brodney
1907 - 2008
Ray Nazarro
1902 - 1986
Walter A. Brown
1905 - 1964
Saul Rosenzweig
1907 - 2004
Edward Dahlberg
1900 - 1977
Henry-Russell Hitchcock
1903 - 1987
Ed Herlihy
1909 - 1999
George Weller
1907 - 2002
Roland Winters
1904 - 1989
Paul A. Dever
1903 - 1958
Phil Napoleon
1901 - 1990
F. Van Wyck Mason
1901 - 1978
Hiram Sherman
1908 - 1989
Phoebe Atwood Taylor
1909 - 1976
George David Woods
1901 - 1982
Hamilton MacFadden
1901 - 1977
John Moors Cabot
1901 - 1981
Robert F. Bradford
1902 - 1983
Roland Anderson
1903 - 1989
Joseph T. O'Callahan
1905 - 1964
George Clapp Vaillant
1901 - 1945
Wilmar H. Shiras
1908 - 1990
Perle Fine
1905 - 1988
Lou Breslow
1900 - 1987
Eliot Daniel
1908 - 1997
Helene Johnson
1906 - 1995
Hyman Spotnitz
1908 - 2008
Patricia Avery
1902 - 1973
Frank M. Carpenter
1902 - 1994
Brooks Otis
1908 - 1977
Linda Watkins
1908 - 1976
Harry Einstein
1904 - 1958
Harry L. Shapiro
1902 - 1990
Maurice Halperin
1906 - 1995
Arthur Mendel
1905 - 1979
Johnny Indrisano
1905 - 1968
Harold Jefferson Coolidge Jr.
1904 - 1985
Edmund MacDonald
1908 - 1951
Norma Farber
1909 - 1984
Waitstill Sharp
1902 - 1984
Claire Parker
1906 - 1981
Marland P. Billings
1902 - 1996
Varick Frissell
1903 - 1931
Sherwin Badger
1901 - 1972
Joseph Levis
1905 - 2005
Priscilla White (physician)
1900 - 1989
Benjamin Arthur Quarles
1904 - 1996
Mason Hammond
1903 - 2002
Richard W. Mayo
1902 - 1996
Tomás Francisco Reilly
1908 - 1992
Elbridge Ross
1909 - 1980
Gladys Walton
1903 - 1993
Charles E. Henderson
1907 - 1970
Donald Keith (actor)
1903 - 1969
Valentine Bialas
1903 - 1965
Nancy Hale
1908 - 1988
John Kelly (actor)
1901 - 1947
Lawrence Berk
1908 - 1995
Erna Lazarus
1903 - 2006
Leone Lane
1908 - 1993
Robert Sidney Bowen
1900 - 1977
Jack Hagerty
1903 - 1982
Allan Frost Archer
1908 - 1994
Edith Fishtine Helman
1905 - 1994
J. Lester Madden
1909 - 1984
Aurelia Plath
1906 - 1994
Damian O'Flynn
1907 - 1982
William McVey (sculptor)
1905 - 1995
Melvin Johnson
1909 - 1965
Quincy Howe
1900 - 1977
Holden Furber
1903 - 1993
Leland Benham
1905 - 1976
Letterio Calapai
1902 - 1993
Charles Gaynor
1909 - 1975
Irene E. Ryan
1909 - 1997
Dudley Fitts
1903 - 1968
Francis E. Kelly
1903 - 1982
Leon Adams
1905 - 1995
John Francis Kennedy (politician)
1905 - 1994
Bailey Aldrich
1907 - 2002
George Hill (figure skater)
1907 - 1992
Charles Edward Wyzanski Jr.
1906 - 1986
Collette Lyons
1908 - 1986
Frank Scannell
1903 - 1989
John Caskey
1908 - 1981
John F. Parker
1907 - 1992
Lawrence Kupferman
1909 - 1982
Len Grant
1906 - 1938
Philip Nichols Jr.
1907 - 1990
Marcia Nardi
1901 - 1990
Alexander Steinert
1900 - 1982
William Grinnell
1909 - 1997
Dorothy Adlow
1901 - 1964
John Cranford Adams
1903 - 1986
Alfred Henry Miller
1904 - 1967
Eve Garrison
1903 - 2003
Tatiana Menotti
1909 - 2001
John E. Kerrigan
1908 - 1987
Duke Nelson
1907 - 1989
Harry Berman
1902 - 1944
Florence Chambers
1907 - 1979
Joe McKenney
1905 - 1995
Willard MacGregor
1901 - 1993
Nathaniel H. Frank
1903 - 1984
Sidney Sugarman
1904 - 1974
George Fingold
1908 - 1958
Westcott Moulton
1906 - 1983
Edward Billings Ham
1902 - 1965
Pasquale Caggiano
1909 - 1972
Ruth Bancroft
1908 - 2017
Frances Sweeney
1908 - 1944
Hank Garrity (baseball)
1908 - 1962
Bradford Ropes
1905 - 1966
Ed Wineapple
1905 - 1996
Carl Greenberg
1908 - 1984
Myrtle Watkins
1908 - 1968
Edmund E. Anderson
1906 - 1989
Michael Redstone
1902 - 1987
George Kirstein
1909 - 1986
William H. G. FitzGerald
1909 - 2006
Blimp Levy
1903 - 1961
Cornelius Keefe
1900 - 1972
Alfred Codman
Born 1900
Gerard D. Reilly
1906 - 1995
Art Smith (baseball)
1906 - 1995
David Hurwitz (physician)
1905 - 1992
Kenneth Alden Bartlett
Born 1907
Charles Mason (rower)
1908 - 1999
Daniel H. Coakley Jr.
1906 - 1964
James Lawrence (rower)
1907 - 1995
Lawrence Briggs
1902 - 1970
Paul G. Kirk Sr.
1904 - 1981
A. Arthur Giddon
1909 - 2010
Joseph Lee (American politician)
1901 - 1991
Frank W. Applebee
1902 - 1988
Gustaf Lindskog
1903 - 2002
Robert Livermore (alpine skier)
1909 - 1991
Edna Foster
Born 1900
Maurice H. Palrang
1906 - 1978
Michael J. Galvin
1907 - 1963
Sy Rosenthal
1903 - 1969
Howard Johnson (Altsaxophonist)
1905 - 1991